Alexandria Casserick
Alexandria Casserick was a talented alchemist, biologist and surgeon in Erradan who invented Miracle Skin. She went mad later in life after a terrible fire that permanently ruined her face. She featured in The Escapists campaign, where she was killed by Jeric and Catalyst. Background Alexandria's face was horribly scarred in a lab accident in 20.74, and after that she worked on a way to remove the scarring. The solution to this was Miracle Skin After inventing Miracle Skin in 20.77, Alexandria enjoyed brief success and fame. She used the formula to reconstruct her own face, and the faces of others who had been wounded. She also had many noble ladies visit her, asking her to use miracle skin to make them more beautiful and remove their imperfections. In 20.79, she was visited by several people, offering her large amounts of money in exchange for the recipe for Miracle Skin. She refused, keeping the recipe a secret. It turned out, these individuals had been from the Cabal, and when they failed to retrieve the recipe through money, they instead stole it through subterfuge. One of Alexandria's apprentices turned out to be a Cabal agent, and stole the equipment and ingredients used to create Miracle Skin, while Alexandria was hosting a party in the house. They then set fire to the building, and barred the exit doors. Alexandria allegedly died in the fire, however she actually retreated into her basement to escape, but not unscathed. Alexandria, and everybody else in the building who had used Miracle Skin, were horrifically scarred when the substance melted in the heat. Those who survived the injuries were driven mad from pain and horror, as their faces were irreparably damaged. The reputation of Miracle Skin immediately went downhill, and from then on nobody could speak of the product without thinking of the tragedy that had followed it. Alexandria survived for several years as a recluse, scavenging things she could find, and spiralling into madness. Her interest in faces and beauty, which had previously simply been a professional interest, became an obsession, and jealousy consumed her. She prowled the streets, masked with bandages to cover he face. She stalked beautiful people back to their homes and killed them in gruesome ways. In 20.86, Alexandria was tracked down by Professor Oden Bespoke. They had much in common, both having been involved in terrible accidents, and both insane. Bespoke saw her detailed sketches, and how she continued to create Miracle Skin, and sensed opportunity. He befriended her, and helped her, relocating her to a safe basement that she could stay in. He implanted a mechanical device into her brain, like he had done with his own mind, to help alleviate her pain. He visited her every so often, and made sure that she was well fed and provided for. He never fully told her his plans, but mentioned "Project Legion" a few times. The augmented impant in her mind made Alexandria susceptible to influence from an entity that she simply referred to as "The Lady". The Lady showed her various people, who she would then sketch and create faces for. Bespoke would then take these faces away. One day, he delivered to her a snippet of his plans, a clockwork golem with a Miracle Skin face. The Escapists Bespoke and his allies occasionally used Alexandria as a means of conveying information to each other, since only they knew where she was. After Eltroy Trimmenere left a message for Bespoke with Alexandria, Jeric and Catalyst were able to track her down. She significantly injured Catalyst with her claws, but then the pair managed to talk her down, and spoke with her. She revealed some of what she knew, and that Bespoke was heading to Kimberley Avenue. After the pair had what they had come for, Catalyst gave Jeric his needle pistol, loaded with a poison dart. Jeric got a good shot against Alexandria, however her rage at being betrayed once again drove her into a violent fury, throwing all caution aside and slashing at Jeric, significantly harming him. Jeric then stabbed her with a syringe loaded with a sleep draught, knocking her out. She died of poison on the floor of her hideout. Skills Before the fire, Alexandria was a talented scientist and surgeon, a first-class graduate of the Varawyn Academy of Natural Sciences. She was also a capable artist, and spent many years practicing drawing anatomy and diagrams. She was particularly fond of drawing faces. After she was driven mad, she retained the skills she had previously in life, though this was seemingly through instinct, as she was very absent-minded and barely able to hold a thought. She became almost feral from years of having to survive on the streets of Erradan, and picked up fighting skills. Her dexterity and ferocity were her greatest assets in this regard, in a fight she tended to throw herself at her opponents with reckless abandon. She crafted for herself a set of makeshift bladed claws to defend herself with, and was deadly with these.